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Back in 2022, Charles Barkley revealed that there was a plan in place to give a spot on the Inside the NBA desk to one of Shaquille O’Neal’s old running mates. Barkley told Draymond Green that the late Kobe Bryant put pen to paper on a contract to join Turner when his NBA career came to an end, but ultimately, things fell through due to the fact that Bryant had some qualms about doing the additional promotional appearances that would pop up beyond just being on the show.

It’s a fascinating story, one that came up during Barkley’s cameo on “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce.” After retelling the story that he told Green, Barkley expressed that he had some reservations about whether adding Bryant to the fold would have worked.

“I don’t think his personality … I don’t think he’s built to have a lot of fun,” Barkley said at the 1:58:00 mark.

“I don’t know if he was built to have fun,” he continued. “He was a great person, I liked him, rest in peace. But like, he was a real serious guy. And the problem you have, if you’re gonna do our show, I don’t think people understand, we’re on from seven to two in the morning. Nobody wants to be damn serious from seven to two in the morning, ok?”

Bryant was, obviously, a gigantic personality and someone who was excellent whenever he appeared on TV after his playing career ended. But like Barkley said, one defining feature of Bryant’s prior to his passing in 2020 was how serious and professional he was, so maybe some of the jokes that can be a little personal that Chuck/Shaq/Kenny throw around might not have gone over especially well.

Technology is constantly changing and teens are usually ahead of the curve when it comes to the newest tech on the block. Many parents are asking their children how apps work or using their teens as in-home tech support for anything technology related, so it’s not a surprise when parents are two steps behind in warning their children about a problematic app or unsafe trend.

Think about being a teen in the late 90s and our not-so-smart greeting of “ASL” (Age, Sex, Location) for AOL chatrooms full of strangers that used to offer to pick us up for parties. Most of our parents didn’t know how to get past the Ask Jeeves screen, let alone navigate to an AOL chatroom to see who we were talking to. In many ways, teens today are doing the exact same thing but with a faster internet connection, more platforms and high-definition cameras. But now, we’re the parents trying to Ask Jeeves what Omegle is.

I’ll give you a hint: Jeeves doesn’t know, but this cyber security educator does, and she’s sending out massive smoke flares to get parents’ attention.

Tiana Sharifi, a cyber security educator, replied to a question asked on her TikTok page. The commenter asked if Sharifi thought Omegle was inappropriate and was given an in-depth answer about the dangers of the app for children.

“I educate parents but I also educate kids and teens, and what I will tell you is that when I go into these presentations, from grade six and upwards, they’ve all heard about Omegle,” Sharifi says. “When I say, ‘Have you heard of Omegle?’ everybody’s hands go up. But when I ask parents in parent nights, you get maybe two or three hands go up. This is not a safe platform.”

Omegle is a video platform that essentially allows you to video chat with strangers for a few minutes at a time. Sharifi explains it as webcam chat roulette where the only safeguard is a box that you click saying you’re 18. No math required to try to guess the correct birth year, just a box to check. There are no moderators and you can’t choose the rooms you get dropped into, so kids can and do get paired with adults, and not always safe adults.

“If you want to do an experiment, you can go on Omegle yourself and you will see within five seconds of being on the platform, there will be a lot of inappropriate nakedness,” Sharifi reveals.

@tianasharifi

Replying to @eveybevy70 #parenting #parentingtips #onlinesafety #childsafety

But if you think kids being dropped into random rooms with anonymous strangers is the worst part, Sharifi drops a bomb that most parents aren’t ready to hear.

“The most alarming part is that the kids are being recorded without their knowledge,” the educator shares.

Since the platform is live-streamed, the kids believe the interaction is completely temporary, unaware that the adult could be filming them. If a child decides to engage with the naked individual in any way, including in a way that’s inappropriate, these screen-recorded interactions are then uploaded to inappropriate adult entertainment sites, according to Sharifi. But there’s no extortion or blackmail, so neither the kids nor parents ever find out their children are on these sites that are specifically frequented by people looking for sexual content involving minors.

Teens aren’t aware of the recordings and their parents aren’t aware of the sites, so Sharifi bringing this to light on a public platform that teens and parents both frequent could make a positive impact.

Technology is constantly changing and teens are usually ahead of the curve when it comes to the newest tech on the block. Many parents are asking their children how apps work or using their teens as in-home tech support for anything technology related, so it’s not a surprise when parents are two steps behind in warning their children about a problematic app or unsafe trend.

Think about being a teen in the late 90s and our not-so-smart greeting of “ASL” (Age, Sex, Location) for AOL chatrooms full of strangers that used to offer to pick us up for parties. Most of our parents didn’t know how to get past the Ask Jeeves screen, let alone navigate to an AOL chatroom to see who we were talking to. In many ways, teens today are doing the exact same thing but with a faster internet connection, more platforms and high-definition cameras. But now, we’re the parents trying to Ask Jeeves what Omegle is.

I’ll give you a hint: Jeeves doesn’t know, but this cyber security educator does, and she’s sending out massive smoke flares to get parents’ attention.

Tiana Sharifi, a cyber security educator, replied to a question asked on her TikTok page. The commenter asked if Sharifi thought Omegle was inappropriate and was given an in-depth answer about the dangers of the app for children.

“I educate parents but I also educate kids and teens, and what I will tell you is that when I go into these presentations, from grade six and upwards, they’ve all heard about Omegle,” Sharifi says. “When I say, ‘Have you heard of Omegle?’ everybody’s hands go up. But when I ask parents in parent nights, you get maybe two or three hands go up. This is not a safe platform.”

Omegle is a video platform that essentially allows you to video chat with strangers for a few minutes at a time. Sharifi explains it as webcam chat roulette where the only safeguard is a box that you click saying you’re 18. No math required to try to guess the correct birth year, just a box to check. There are no moderators and you can’t choose the rooms you get dropped into, so kids can and do get paired with adults, and not always safe adults.

“If you want to do an experiment, you can go on Omegle yourself and you will see within five seconds of being on the platform, there will be a lot of inappropriate nakedness,” Sharifi reveals.

@tianasharifi

Replying to @eveybevy70 #parenting #parentingtips #onlinesafety #childsafety

But if you think kids being dropped into random rooms with anonymous strangers is the worst part, Sharifi drops a bomb that most parents aren’t ready to hear.

“The most alarming part is that the kids are being recorded without their knowledge,” the educator shares.

Since the platform is live-streamed, the kids believe the interaction is completely temporary, unaware that the adult could be filming them. If a child decides to engage with the naked individual in any way, including in a way that’s inappropriate, these screen-recorded interactions are then uploaded to inappropriate adult entertainment sites, according to Sharifi. But there’s no extortion or blackmail, so neither the kids nor parents ever find out their children are on these sites that are specifically frequented by people looking for sexual content involving minors.

Teens aren’t aware of the recordings and their parents aren’t aware of the sites, so Sharifi bringing this to light on a public platform that teens and parents both frequent could make a positive impact.

The world economy runs on maritime shipping. More than 80% of international goods by volume are transported by ships, which together weave the essential fabric of the global supply chain.

But all of that shipping comes at a high cost to the climate: Right now, every ship is powered by carbon-emitting fuel, which means maritime shipping is responsible for an estimated 3 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Curbing those emissions as soon as possible—and fully decarbonizing the industry as a whole—is an important piece of the worldwide project to fight climate change and reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Just to get on track, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has concluded that international shipping emissions must remain steady through 2025, then decline by three percent annually until the end of the decade. And the average lifespan of a shipping vessel is 25 years, which means that ships built from 2025 onward will need to run on zero-emission fuel or be powered by engines that are convertible to zero-emission fuel.

We need to build ships that can run on zero-emission fuel, we need to build them as soon as possible, and we need to scale up the production of fuel that will keep those ships running efficiently.

Today’s industry standard is bunker fuel, also known as heavy fuel oil (HFO), because it has a high energy density and it is easily and efficiently transported. Both of those characteristics will be necessary for any fuel source that powers zero-emission maritime shipping. Unfortunately, batteries don’t offer enough energy density to compete with bunker fuel in most situations, and the hydrogen that powers fuel cells is expensive and difficult to transport in liquid form. While methanol offers both high energy density and efficient transportation, it still has carbon intensity and the production of green methanol is not cost-effective.

That’s where ammonia will make a difference. While batteries, liquid hydrogen, and methanol will all play significant roles in reaching Net Zero 2050, ammonia is the most promising affordable, zero-emission fuel. Ammonia is three times more energy dense than hydrogen, making it a clean and efficient solution that’s also easier and faster than battery charging without the size and weight constraints. The production of green ammonia is scalable and cost-effective, sufficient to provide hundreds of million tons of affordable fuels.

At Amogy, we’ve pioneered an ammonia-to-power technology that uses its unique properties as a carrier for hydrogen. The key is a process called “cracking,” which converts ammonia into hydrogen. By combining our cracking system with hydrogen fuel cell technology, it is possible to use ammonia as fuel without any combustion or carbon emissions.

Maritime shipping is a gigantic industry. Ammonia-to-power technology must develop concurrently with increased production of blue and green ammonia, supported by public policy encouraging both. And ammonia is just one piece of the Net Zero 2050 mission to fight climate change.

But the technology exists to make it happen. At Amogy, we’re using it to retrofit a tugboat into the world’s first ammonia-powered, zero-emission ship. By acting urgently—by taking the steps now that will speed the transition to carbon-free shipping tomorrow—we can transform that knowledge into real progress for our decarbonized future.

The world economy runs on maritime shipping. More than 80% of international goods by volume are transported by ships, which together weave the essential fabric of the global supply chain.

But all of that shipping comes at a high cost to the climate: Right now, every ship is powered by carbon-emitting fuel, which means maritime shipping is responsible for an estimated 3 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Curbing those emissions as soon as possible—and fully decarbonizing the industry as a whole—is an important piece of the worldwide project to fight climate change and reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Just to get on track, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has concluded that international shipping emissions must remain steady through 2025, then decline by three percent annually until the end of the decade. And the average lifespan of a shipping vessel is 25 years, which means that ships built from 2025 onward will need to run on zero-emission fuel or be powered by engines that are convertible to zero-emission fuel.

We need to build ships that can run on zero-emission fuel, we need to build them as soon as possible, and we need to scale up the production of fuel that will keep those ships running efficiently.

Today’s industry standard is bunker fuel, also known as heavy fuel oil (HFO), because it has a high energy density and it is easily and efficiently transported. Both of those characteristics will be necessary for any fuel source that powers zero-emission maritime shipping. Unfortunately, batteries don’t offer enough energy density to compete with bunker fuel in most situations, and the hydrogen that powers fuel cells is expensive and difficult to transport in liquid form. While methanol offers both high energy density and efficient transportation, it still has carbon intensity and the production of green methanol is not cost-effective.

That’s where ammonia will make a difference. While batteries, liquid hydrogen, and methanol will all play significant roles in reaching Net Zero 2050, ammonia is the most promising affordable, zero-emission fuel. Ammonia is three times more energy dense than hydrogen, making it a clean and efficient solution that’s also easier and faster than battery charging without the size and weight constraints. The production of green ammonia is scalable and cost-effective, sufficient to provide hundreds of million tons of affordable fuels.

At Amogy, we’ve pioneered an ammonia-to-power technology that uses its unique properties as a carrier for hydrogen. The key is a process called “cracking,” which converts ammonia into hydrogen. By combining our cracking system with hydrogen fuel cell technology, it is possible to use ammonia as fuel without any combustion or carbon emissions.

Maritime shipping is a gigantic industry. Ammonia-to-power technology must develop concurrently with increased production of blue and green ammonia, supported by public policy encouraging both. And ammonia is just one piece of the Net Zero 2050 mission to fight climate change.

But the technology exists to make it happen. At Amogy, we’re using it to retrofit a tugboat into the world’s first ammonia-powered, zero-emission ship. By acting urgently—by taking the steps now that will speed the transition to carbon-free shipping tomorrow—we can transform that knowledge into real progress for our decarbonized future.

Doja Cat has been having fun leaking parts of her forthcoming album with fans online. But she couldn’t have been prepared for paparazzi exposing her supposed relationship with J.Cyrus (real name Jeffrey Cyrus) online. Welp, it’s too late for that now that the cat is out of the bag. Images of the “Vegas” rapper and Cyrus enjoying a lover’s dip on vacation inadvertently dug up things from her rumored boo’s past.

So, who is J.Cyrus, exactly? The New Orleans, Louisiana native first found success on the now-defunct social media app Vine. Occasionally, he will upload different comedic skits on his official YouTube channel and across his Instagram page.

Since then, he’s dappled in several different sectors of the entertainment business, including music. His most popular songs are the 2018 track “Slowly Falling” and the 2015 single “Sank Ship” featuring The Classmatez. After battling addiction, Cyrus sought treatment and used his music to encourage others to do the same.

As a creative person with a unique sense of humor, it seems that Doja Cat has found the perfect partner. However, J.Cyrus’ past racially insensitive tweets resurfaced. Now fans of the rapper are urging her to call things off before things get too serious. View his past tweets and fans’ reactions to their alleged coupling below.

In addition to recommending a 13-year prison sentence for Tory Lanez after he was convicted of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in 2020, Los Angeles prosecutors have also accused the Toronto rapper of attempting to crash his victim’s 2021 Rolling Loud Miami set with the help of DaBaby.

While that festival remains infamous for DaBaby’s onstage comments that cost him numerous other festival slots and corporate endorsements, it was also notable that the Charlotte rapper brought Tory Lanez onstage to perform their new collaboration, drawing the ire of Megan Thee Stallion fans who saw it as an act of disloyalty after Meg had collaborated multiple times with DaBaby.

Now, according to the memo filed LA District Attorneys requesting a 13-year sentence for Lanez due to his lack of remorse for his actions, it appears that DaBaby and Tory’s original plan was even worse. While it was previously reported that Tory and DaBaby had entered the green room, violating Meg’s restraining order against Tory, the memo asserts that they “attempted to rush the stage during her performance.”

Whatever they planned to do after that remains unclear because they were prevented from disrupting her performance. Instead, DaBaby introduced Tory during his own set, where they performed “Skat.” After this, Megan Thee Stallion fell out with DaBaby, whose own popularity took a nosedive due to his antics over the next several months — including his own juvenile attempt to use their prior relationship for clout on his song “Boogeyman.” On the song, he alleges that he also had a sexual relationship with Meg, which could explain his partnership with Tory, even after Tory was accused of shooting her.

Tory’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, June 13.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Meghan McCain is something of an enigma when it comes to Donald Trump. She’s one of the few prominent conservatives willing to criticize the former president as she’s done many times over the years thanks in no small part to Trump’s penchant for hurling insults at her father, the late Senator John McCain. However, McCain is also a lifelong Republican, which has often placed in her awkward positions as her party continues to rally around Trump.

Anytime the former president seems to face consequences for his actions, McCain predicts that it will boost his chances in the next election, and she hasn’t changed her tune even with the considerably more serious indictment over Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.

In her latest column for the Daily Mail, McCain rips both Joe Biden and the Department of Justice for putting the entire country on “shaky” ground. “It goes without saying that Biden’s DOJ has undermined – intentionally or not – the public’s rights to choose its own leader,” McCain wrote. “There’s no denying that they’ve put their thumbs on the scale.”

As McCain argues, the charges against Trump must be spectacular or America will never recover as a country:

Never before in my lifetime has the ground under our feet seemed so shaky. I feel it in the pit of my stomach.

If this reported seven count federal indictment against Trump does not reveal a crime so shocking that it unites Americans in universal condemnation of him, then I fear there may be no coming back.

American’s fundamental faith in their country will be crippled.

While acknowledging that the DOJ may have “unearthed” serious evidence, McCain towed the party line by condemning the indictment of a former president as a bridge too far.

“At seemingly every step, America lurches away from the country that I recognize,” McCain wrote. “This is the view from across the Rubicon. It’s terrifying.”

(Via Daily Mail)

No one was happier to hear about Donald Trump’s impending federal indictment than his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, while we’ve all had terrible bosses, few of us have ever been used as the fall guy for a sexual abuser hoping to pay off his an adult film star so that he could keep an affair under wraps during an election year. And of those who have, practically none have lied to both the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Intelligence Committee in order to cover up a president’s business dealings with a rival world power.

Sure, Cohen did sh*tty things for a not-great guy, but he’s still allowed to celebrate when his ex-employer may also find himself in handcuffs for his crimes. And celebrate he did.

Cohen reportedly heard rumors of Trump’s indictment while celebrating his wife’s birthday with their family. He told Raw Story that the news that his corrupt boss was finally facing serious jail time only added to the joyful day:

Once again, Donald has created a first as he is now not only the first former president indicted on state charges, but he additionally holds the title of former president indicted on federal charges. Mazel!

Trump is set to be booked next week though whether he’ll be granted bail or put on house arrest until his trial still remains to be seen. He’s facing dozens of state charges in New York and seven federal charges as well, plus he has the resources to qualify as a flight risk. Cohen hopes he’s treated just like any other accused criminal. “He should be treated no different than any other individual indicted, identically to any other individual under indictment by the federal government,” he said. “No exceptions.”

(Via RawStory)

Fifteen years ago, Taylor Sheridan‘s biggest move towards being a household name sourced from his run as Deputy Hale (RIP) in Sons of Anarchy. Now, Sheridan has blown past “instantly recognizable” to practically running the overall Paramount+ show, it seems. Bucketfuls of Sheridan content continue to arrive (and will do so in the future). Several of these shows, including an upcoming Matthew McConaughey vehicle, are directly related to Yellowstone (and Sheridan is further cashing in while renting his ranches out for filming purposes), yet a handful sit outside of that cowboy universe.

Mayor of Kingstown takes Jeremy Renner back to his grittier, pre-Marvel intensity. Tulsa King gives Sylvester Stallone a new chapter in his wizened stardom. Land Man will put Billy Bob Thornton in wheeling-and-dealing mode. And Bass Reeves will star David Oyelowo, Barry Pepper, Dennis Quaid, Forrest Goodluck, and Donald Sutherland while tracing the history of the first Black Deputy U.S. Marshall of the West. Coming up very soon, however, is Special Ops: Lioness, formerly known as Lioness but more on-its-face descriptive now.

This upcoming series will star Zoe Saldaña as a frontrunner within the CIA’s Lioness Program (the show’s version is based upon the real-life entity). As a key operative named Joe, she will mentor and mold recruits to follow in her footsteps, and Joe will also be balancing her own tenuous personal life while these women grow to be fearsome assassins. Layers of moral complexity are to be expected when a terrorist’s daughter enters the picture, and the series largely filmed in Maryland.

Release Date

Special Ops: Lioness will debut on July 23 via Paramount+.

Cast

Saldaña will be back in ass-kicking mode, over a decade after Colombiana proved how riveting she can be as an action star. Nicole Kidman also headlines, and the cast is rounded out by Morgan Freeman, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, Hannah Love Lanier, James Jordan, Jonah Wharton, and Stephanie Nur.

Plot

As the series synopsis indicates, the story “follows the life of Joe (Zoe Saldaña) while she attempts to balance her personal and professional life as the tip of the CIA’s spear in the war on terror… The Lioness Program, overseen by Kaitlyn Meade (Nicole Kidman) and Donald Westfield (Michael Kelly), enlists an aggressive Marine Raider named Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) to operate undercover alongside Joe among the power brokers of State terrorism in the CIA’s efforts to thwart the next 9/11.”

Trailer

As of now, no full trailer has materialized for this spinoff, but here’s a rather substantial teaser trailer. Kidman looks to be demanding attention in a role unlike we’ve seen her portray before now, and Saldaña clearly relishes this meaty project after getting lost in franchises for over a decade.

Taylor Sheridan’s Special Ops: Lioness will premiere on July 23.